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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Review: Turning Curse by A.C. Harrah

Turning Curse

By A.C. Harrah

Blurb: Irresponsible was one
word used to describe Prince Liam. Liam preferred fun-loving. After
years of pulling pranks on his fellow nobles and ruining balls, Liam’s
prospects for a bride are looking dim. At his wits’ end, Liam’s father
arranges a marriage between Liam and his best friend Cordelia. She is
the last person in the world Liam wants to marry. When Liam confesses
this to her, she transforms Liam with a curse.

Now Liam must
escape her clutches while breaking her spell, but he is trapped in her
castle with no way to escape. His only hope is to persuade Cordelia’s
servant Gabrielle to help him. However, Gabrielle has a secret of her
own, and helping Liam is something she cannot do.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This
is a mashup retelling of All Kinds of Fur, a super obscure
fairytale(Don't look up the story if you don't want to know too much
about the plot in this book!), and The Frog Prince, which everyone knows
about. If you have any doubts whether the author could pull off
retelling both of these stories in the same novel, don't. Turning Curse did well combining elements from both of the fairytales into a really great book.

The
characters are pretty complex in this story. Liam, the main character,
is a bit of a jerk. He's inconsiderate, and hasn't really grown up yet.
Quite honestly, I didn't have a lot of pity for him at the beginning of
the book. However, he grows a lot during the progression of the book. He
was quite the three dimensional character.

Gabrielle was a
pretty good love interest, but I didn't think that the romance storyline
was what made me like her. I wanted to know exactly what was going on
with her! Some of the stuff I will admit I was able to guess at. But
other things were big reveals for me.

I felt bad for Liam's
brother Alan, because he really did not get a happy ending at all in
this book. Not even close to one. Thankfully, he is getting a sequel,
because I felt that in order to make sure Liam ended up happy, Alan's
heart repeatedly kept getting shattered.

The one character I
hated was Cordelia. I thought that she was rash and she would
continually get on my nerves. Even when the book tried to make me feel
sorry for her I couldn't. The hate was too strong.

Considering I
had forgotten most of the storyline for All Kinds of Fur, I was always
very eager to see where the plot would go next. It was pretty twisty, so
I never got bored.

Besides abhorring Cordelia, the one thing
that got on my nerves during the course of this story was Liam's
tendency to sound too modern. Everyone sounded regal and royal in this
book...except Liam. It might have been intentional, but I still didn't
like it because it didn't fit in with how everyone else talked.

Turning
Curse isn't afraid to break out from retelling 'traditional' fairytales
like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and it has quite likeable
characters. Despite a few blunders to take away from what have been a
four star rating from me, I enjoyed reading it.